Mean Girls Review
This updated adaptation of the classic comedy coasts by on love of the first enjoyably enough, and adds a couple of funny jokes, but never recaptures the magic.
As with the original, Mean Girls follows Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) as she returns to a US school after extended homeschooling in Africa. There, despite initially forming friendships with Janice (Auli’i Cravalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey), she finds herself mixed in with the Plastics - the alpha predator of the school, led by Queen Bee Regina George (Renee Rapp). Janice and Damian convince Cady to help them bring down Regina, and the trio start a war on the Plastics - but is it one they can win? And if they do, will it be worth it?
This new version of Mean Girls hews very closely to the original from a plot and dialogue perspective, with the occasional burst of newer humour from writer Tina Fey (who also reprises her role from the original). The key difference is that this is actually based on the stage show, and as such is a musical.
The film is directed by Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr, who you’d be forgiven for not having heard of before. Both are very young to be heading up a movie this big, and this is their debut feature. They also have extensive experience in the short and music video realm, and this reads strongly across this movie, which feels like a bunch of music videos loosely strung together by the Mean Girls plot.
The film is at its highest when copying directly from the original, but also when the musical numbers hit. Visually, these scenes are the most effective, with the directing duo’s experience shining through and the choreographed dancing and wonderful singing being really captivating. It’s in the quieter moments of drama that the film struggles - the lighting looking cheap and nasty, the cinematography not quite there. The intro sequence in Africa feels so obviously green screen as to be distracting, and the whole sequence jumps and jitters as if a gimbal wasn’t quite stabilised.
The cast across the board is perfectly fine, without any standouts. These performances don’t hold a candle to the original, although Spivey is a bright spot - really leaning in and giving the audience quite a few laughs.
Ultimately, this is a relatively inoffensive adaptation of the stage show, but does little to prove its worth as a remake of such a classic movie that still holds up today.
